Traditional methods of molding parts, for example plastic or composite parts, by vacuum molding, sheet compound molding, reaction injection molding, injection molding and/or rotational molding have heretofore required an expensive, complex and specific tool with which to form a particular molded part shape. Thus, should a plurality of shapes of molded parts be desired or required, a separate, specific tool is required to fabricate each specifically shaped part, thus substantially increasing the costs to manufacturers.
Further, should a manufacturer desire to include features such as undercuts in a molded part, expensive, complicated collapsible tooling is required to remove the tool from the molded part in the area of the undercut. Such expensive, complicated tooling generally must include a complex system of slides and ways to accomplish such collapsing to remove the tool from the formed part. Thus, manufacturers have either had to purchase or construct such complex tooling in order to form undercuts in their molded parts, or have simply had to forego such undercuts and in the process do without the substantial functional and aesthetic benefits and attributes attributable to such undercuts.
It is therefore one objective of the present invention to provide a method of forming an article of manufacture including undercuts therein which does not require the use of expensive, complicated collapsible tooling to accomplish the formation of the undercuts in the part.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a method of forming articles of manufacture of various configurations utilizing only a single generic tool rather than a plurality of specific tools fabricated for each specific part configuration.